The
gunners insult the officers they meet, seize them by the throat and
want to throw them into the Doubs. Others go to the house of the
commandant, M. de Langeron, and demand money of him; on his refusing
to give it they tear off their cockades and exclaim, "We too belong
to the Third-Estate!" in other words, that they are the masters:
subsequently they demand the head of the intendant, M. de Caumartin,
forcibly enter his dwelling and break up his furniture. On the
following day the rabble and the soldiers enter the coffee-houses,
the convents, and the inns, and demand to be served with wine and
eatables as much as they want, and then, heated by drink, they burn
the excise offices, force open several prisons, and set free all the
smugglers and deserters. To put an end to this saturnalia a grand
banquet in the open air is suggested, in which the National Guard is
to fraternize with the whole garrison; but the banquet turns into a
drinking-bout, entire companies remaining under the tables dead
drunk; other companies carry away with them four hogsheads of wine,
and the rest, finding themselves left in the lurch, are scattered
abroad outside the walls in order to rob the cellars of the
neighboring villages.
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